Archive for the ‘Greys’ Category

“We have sufficient physical and anecdotal evidence to suggest that the Zrr’gbk dedicated an entire branch of their civilizations to, for lack of a better term, being awesome.” – Maxoltl von Powers, Action Psychologist

“They didn’t eat like we did. Some chemicals, some proteins didn’t break down, they could be passed on from one living thing to another. It’s very efficient, from a biological standpoint – no energy wasted – but it also opens up tremendous risks in that poisons and harmful bacteria can be readily passed on. The Greys’ cannibalization taboo is centered around the potential for spreading debilitating illness, but it must be weighed against an instinctive desire to re-acquire those specific chemicals, proteins and antibodies possessed by the dead.” – Jean-Paul Goodwill, Xenobiochemist

A fungus cairn is a persistent colony of symbiotic and parasitic fungus and moss species that are based on the partially mineralized pseudo-endoskeletons of the original Greys – the closest earth-based biological system is a coral reef. In this case, the individual cells within the Grey’s skeletal systems continue to live and thrive after the death of the original organism, feeding a system of Earth-native fungus species.

The first fungus cairn arose spontaneously from Grey-289 when he drowned in a puddle outside Ulster, the first alien to die of a human yeast infection. Most Terran viruses and bacteria didn’t quite work on the original crew, but for some reason the initial Greys were particularly prone to fungal infections.

“Earthlife breaks food down into component parts, then builds them back up again into what we need. Greylife operates at a higher resolution, able to incorporate proteins and substances they digest directly, but unable to break down certain substances or synthesize every necessary biological component. ETransgenics usually display a combination of these traits, and require specialized dietary systems to thrive.” – Joanna Greykin, Dietitian

The recovered remnants of the Grey fleet’s ships and equipment revealed a level of technology barely above 2060s bleeding-edge technologies. Human scientists and engineers reproduced allotropic alloys in a few years and cracked the base-17 alphanumeric programming languages fairly quickly; what took them years to really grasp was the alien system engineering and design philosophies behind the tech.

“I blame the public education system, which these days equates to the internet. All anyone understands is Mendellian inheritence; the genetics articles are scientific blatherskite nobody wants to wade through. That’s why you have idiots talking about how grey their blood is, the purity of their ancestral line – the Greys aren’t peas folks. They represent a completely separate source of DNA, at least some of it possibly synthesized. When those first lost and lonely space sailors smacked down and finally rubbed up against those red-headed lasses, it was the genetic equivalent of crossing a horse and a donkey – well, no, but you can go read up on chromosomes and all that. The point is, the Grey Irish are a hybrid species. Something new. We can never go back to the way it was.” – The deLucca